About the Author:
Dr. D’Eramo is the bestselling author of The MindBody Toolkit and Founder of the American Institute of Mind Body Medicine. She received her board certification in Emergency Medicine at Emory University in Atlanta and currently has an international online practice assisting individuals with chronic illness, pain, anxiety, and fatigue to resolve disease and live in vitality. Her work can be found at DrKimD.com.
hyper-focused on the task at hand and is not able to contemplate the meaning of life or acknowledge the bigger picture of our reality. During intense stress, our body literally shuts down healing and higher functioning so it can mobilize resources to take care of the immediate threat. This is meant to last for seconds or minutes, not hours, days, and years. When the body is put into fight or flight for prolonged periods of time, there is a massive breakdown in our system and a deterioration of health. In this state, we’re well equipped to handle a serious threat, but very ill-able to manage our day to day lives. That’s why this state is meant to be for the short-term only, and is meant to be turned off so that the body can come back into harmony and wellbeing, the natural state in which we are intended to live.
Activation of the fight-or-flight system is controlled by the amygdala, a part of the brain that registers change. Our body is set up to do this because any change could possibly be a threat to our survival. The amygdala alerts the system that there has been a change in our outer environment. It’s up to us to determine whether this is a real or just a perceived threat, and to allow our system to carry out the appropriate response. If it’s a true threat, like someone chasing us, it is helpful for us to mobilize our resources and put everything we’ve got into running away. If, however, it is just a perceived threat, like our lover leaving us, where our immediate survival is not actually in question, it would be unwise to throw our body into a profound imbalance to try to fight this circumstance. However, for many of us, our beliefs kick in and we do not make this distinction. For example, we fear that our future is in jeopardy and do everything we can to try to control our circumstances. This is where most people are living day in and day out.
When it comes to the possibility of becoming infected by a pathogen like a virus, the same fight-or-flight can kick in. We begin living in fear, believing whatever we’re told and disconnecting from our guidance within. We fail to remember that our body does have the ability to heal, that this is activated when we’re in states of love, and that we’re not actually in an immediate threat that requires fight-or-flight activation. Although the virus could possibly be a real threat, reacting with fear is not in any way protective. It may be wise to take actions like washing our hands, wearing a mask, or staying physically distant from others, but none of these require us to be in the fight-or-flight state. In fact, going into fear over this impairs our ability to see the situation with clarity, evaluate our options, and choose wisely.
When the body goes into fight-or-flight, our defenses go down. Even if we are resting well, eating healthfully, and doing everything to protect ourselves, our own fear response directly inhibits our immune system. The mechanism designed to support our survival is not meant to be a state we live in day in and day out. However, most Americans are in fact, living in a sustained stage of fight-or-flight. The very act of trying to “fight disease” actually initiates this and blocks our health.
So, what do you do when you want to stay healthy